Monday, March 31, 2008

Rahzel, a fourteen year old girl with magical powers, is on a quest to see the world. She's accompanied with two mysterious men that she met along her way. The background is vague and I wasn't bedazzled by the story. The finale was the only episode that I enjoyed. I still can't say if it's reverse harem or not as it ended with more questions. I might read the manga or I will just wait for next season..that's it if there will be. The heroine is very witty for her age and I like her outfit changes for each episode. She's a loli character with her doll-like clothes and 10-year+ age differences with the guys.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

"Hana Kimi" returns with a 1-episode special that covers Valentine's, summer vacation and graduation. And to quote it will "also address the relationship bewteen Mizuki and Sano". Taping has began last week, but airing date has yet TBA.

Off topic but still HK...It's so funny that the two rival TV networks in our country are airing the Taiwanese and Japanese adaptations of "Hana Kimi" since Monday (24th). The former is in afternoon slot while the other one is in primetime. With the given the timeslots, the ratings of the jdorama was higher for it's first week. (Note: Soaps ran for an half an hour so each episode are split into two.) One of them even claimed that their version is the original. Lol!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

It's spring again. The sakuras are blossoming and an exciting new season of animes awaits. From the roster I've noticed fewers harems, a same sex harem ("Kyo Kara Maoh 3") and possibly two reverse harems: "Neo Angelique Abyss" and "Special A".

Monday, March 17, 2008

Otome ("maiden") are Japanese video games marketed for girls. It's also known as GxB (girl player, boy characters) for the westerns. Simply put, a dating game between the girl player and several boy characters. I wished I really,really could read Japanese with all the otome titles I've seen. Here are some lovely pictures from game developer, Quinrose. I also found some mangas scans from "Alice Wonderful Wonder World", after fooling around at their website which I think are titled "Scent of Roses".

Sunday, March 16, 2008

This is an alternate ending to the manga "Hot Gimmick". These are for the people who rooted for Shinogu and Hatsume. Since it's a novel there are no storyboard formats. There were few illustrations though. I missed the distinct art style of Aihiri. I'm disappointed on how the story turned out because I've expected so much more. It didn't capture the charm of the original manga. Overall, it was just a wishful thinking of what might happen...

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Sera was raised by the Choi's but the three brothers can't seem to accept her as their sister and have been bullying her since childhood. This is my first time reading a Korean comic or manhwa. The cultural differences is noticeable in just the use of 'oppa' instead of 'onii-chan'. I liked "the more you hate, the more you love" triple plot and the competition between them. But the pacing is slow and the storytelling didnt quite make me hooked. The art reminds me of old animations like "Legend of Georgie" probably because of the eyes. Translations are almost complete.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Volleyball is everything for Nobara that she'd rather be dorm maid than inherit the ryotei or restaurant. This is a half reverse harem because at the start she's serving the top 4 players of the boys' volleyball team and as the manga progresses she was was able to form her own female volleyball team. "Crimson Hero" has a winning combination of comedy, volleyball action and romance. The art is beautiful too. The heroine is tomboyish but a real beauty. I've put off writing it since it's not a full reverse harem but all I can remember is that I enjoyed it. I've read the latest chapter, and it's looks like there's a new set of reverse harem.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Suzuno switched schools and decided to stay at the campus dormitory to help out her family. To stop the demolition she becomes the dorm manager of unruly boys that made the place infamous as "City of Crime". Her strength will be tested to it's limits.

It's unconfirmed if it's a reverse harem because only few of the characters were named (2 more chapters to go). The romance feels rushed, without the build up and it it would have been better if it's ecchi instead of smutty.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Merumo, a naive witch, came to the human world looking for a beautiful man to impregnate her as atonement for her mistake. It has a funky fashion and setting and I'm not sure if it's futuristic or just eccentric. All the characters has a unique style of art as if it was individually drawn by different mangakas.

It innocently looked like a standard magical girl-comdey-ecchi story. I thought "Hot Gimmick" was mature, the comes "Uwasa no Midori-kun" which I thought was scandalous and finally the perverted "Love Monster". It prepared me to a certain degree to the greatest shock in all my history of reading mangas. Now, I know that smut is the gray matter between ecchi and hentai. NOT for the young and the young at heart.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Rio Ogawa was voted the "Most Apologetic" and "Most Bossed Around" in their school. She was ordered to go against the three "Most Feared" Saitous. The heroine's drawings kinda reminds of Sakura of "Oniichan to Isho" and they're both fourteen-years old. The group currently translating this have only the first chapter released, let's wait for more.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Sakura's only family, her grandmother passed away. She is then entrusted to her four brothers that she never met or knew in her entire fourteen years. Very cute story but too bad because I've been waiting for the rest of the manga like forever. It's an unconfirmed reverse harem as we don't know if one of her brothers will be more than just an oniichan. After all, they're not related by blood.